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Vance Delivers Remarks in Islamabad, Pakistan, Apr. 12, 2026

April 12, 2026 · The White House · 0:44:15

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Vice President JD Vance delivered remarks in Islamabad, Pakistan, at the close of the first round of in-person talks with Iran, opening by thanking Pakistan’s prime minister and field marshal, “who were both incredible hosts… the Pakistanis who did an amazing job and really tried to help us and the Iranians bridge the gap and get to a deal.” Then the result: “We have been at it now for 21 hours and we’ve had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement, and I think that’s bad news for Iran much more than it’s bad news for the United States of America. So we go back to the United States having not come to an agreement.”

He declined to negotiate the details in public — “I won’t go into all the details because I don’t want to negotiate in public after we negotiated for 21 hours in private” — but stated the core demand plainly: “We need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon. That is the core goal of the President of the United States, and that’s what we’ve tried to achieve through these negotiations.” Iran’s enrichment facilities, he noted, “such as it is… they’ve been destroyed.” The captioned record published by the White House covers the Vice President’s opening statement and the first exchange with the press.

Why it matters

Islamabad is the diplomatic hinge of this chronicle’s spring: the ceasefire announced April 7 produced talks within days, and the talks’ first round ended without agreement on the one term the administration calls its core goal. The statement is recorded on the Foreign Policy & Defense hub as the baseline against which any later round is measured.

Scoreboard watch

The outcome as stated by the Vice President — 21 hours of substantive talks, no agreement, and the affirmative no-nuclear-weapon commitment as the outstanding term — is recorded here as a candidate item for the weekly scoreboard.

Sources: The White House, “Vice President JD Vance Delivers Remarks in Islamabad, Pakistan,” Islamabad, Pakistan, April 12, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All characterizations as stated by the Vice President at the remarks.